Melbourne Art Fair opened at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday (20 February), kicking off its new chapter of adhering to an annual calendar with new Fair Director Melissa Loughnan.
Though not without its moments, Melbourne Art Fair 2025 feels as if it’s testing the waters under new leadership, with many galleries bringing their tried and trusted.
Headed by Janina Harding (previously Artistic Director of Cairns Indigenous Art Fair) and Dr Jessica Clark, the most energised section is the new Victorian First Peoples Art and Design Fair showcase, located at the far end of the fair, signalling what’s to come when it is launched officially in 2027.
Here are our hand-picked highlights of Melbourne Art Fair this year, applauding the artists and galleries that show commitment, progression and ambition.
Best progression in practice: Yona Lee (Fine Arts, Sydney)
Aotearoa New Zealand-based South Korean artist Yona Lee has taken her stainless steel installations up another notch as a major commission of Melbourne Art Fair 2025. From a single lamp attachment at her 2023 Gertrude exhibition to incorporating water and sound at Buxton Contemporary last year, now, Lee presents an entire networked system of moving curtains, mops and brooms on Roombas and functional fans.
Titled Smart Sculpture (2025), the expansive installation continues Lee’s investigation with the rhythms and choreography of domesticity, suspended and made visible through the steel pathways like neurons connected to a single brain. As BEYOND 2025 curator Anna Briers explains, these familiar objects are both humorous and a little sinister.
Best achiever: Hannah Gartside (Tolarno Galleries)
Hannah Gartside’s small textile sculptures that manipulate gloves to resemble rabbit-like figures is the winner of Melbourne Art Fair 2025’s Richard Parker Award, after taking out the 2024 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. It’s a deviation from Gartside’s Melbourne Now presentation with which some locals may be familiar, and arguably much more suited to a fair’s commercial environment in scale and appeal (starting from $3000 a piece).
A collection of more than 50 figures in a variation of poses – from playful to the comically violent – line the walls of Tolarno (Booth D5), right by the fair’s entrance. Curiously embodied, they are bound to be crowdpleasers.
Best pairing: Jeremy Eaton and Stephen Benwell (Lon Gallery)
Lon Gallery (Booth C2) hosts a dual presentation of queer artists Jeremy Eaton and Stephen Benwell inside its modest yet engaging booth.
There are many dynamics at play, with Benwell’s brittle glazed earthenware against Eaton’s soft textile decorated canvases – the former more established while the latter emerging. On two of Eaton’s canvases, Twilight Wanderer (2025) and Morning Wanderer (2025), the shadow of a figure lingers, inspired by French sculptor Aristide Maillol’s Le Cycliste (1911-14), the effect created using UV exposure dye.
Benwell’s Mantelpiece 1 simultaneously conveys threat and desire, with crude busts and miniature statues also embedded in art history. Then again, you don’t need context to appreciate the presentation – it’s one where your eyes will be drawn to nonetheless.
Best in photography: Michael Cook (Jan Murphy Gallery)
Featuring a jam-packed solo of First Nations photographer Michael Cook, Brisbane’s Jan Murphy Gallery (Booth B2) is a standout for this writer, after the gallery received notable mention in ArtsHub’s roundup last year too.
The new series, Individuation, sees Cook’s friend and long-time collaborator Joey Gala in theatrically-staged settings, often against the backdrop of London.
Money, luxury, materialism, colonisation, corporate culture and personal history intertwine in these meticulous images (priced from $8800 to $21,000 each), and the booth presents a cherished opportunity to embark on a Where’s Wally?-esque adventure, soaking in the details.
Best non-commercial: Adelaide Contemporary Experimental
Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE) (Booth G4) presents a rigorous group exhibition of OAKEY, Mark Valenzuela and Carly Tarkari Dodd in the PROJECT ROOMS, a non-commercial section supported by clothing label Alpha60.
OAKEY’s paper bark sculpture stands like an otherworldly sentinel, and forms a gateway through which Valenzuela’s rich ceramics and textile installation can be viewed, grounded in his experiences and investigations of Filipino history. Dodd’s bright, sumptuous weaves combine satin with recycled T-shirt yarn, playing on the duality of the traditional and contemporary, advocacy and decoration.
Valenzuela is recipient of the 2025 Porter Street Commission and will present his exhibition at ACE in August.
Melbourne Art Fair 2025 runs from 20-23 February at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre: ticketed.
